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Input switch for people with limited movement. The occurrence of acronyms and abbreviations on a Web page may be problematic for some visitors. Screen readers may pronounce them inaccurately or unintelligibly. Individuals with cognitive impairments may have difficulty determining the text to which an acronym or abbreviation refers. In general, visitors may simply be unfamiliar with acronyms and abbreviations commonly used by an institution, organization or other entity.
It is important that the first occurrence of an acronym in the body of a document be preceded by the full title to which the acronym refers. As visitors navigate towards the end of a Web page, the text to which an acronym refers may scroll from view or be inaccessible to users of some adaptive technologies. Repeated exposure to the full name of an institution, organization or other entity can be beneficial: visitors will be more likely to remember the name and share it with friends and associates.
Specify the expansion of each abbreviation or acronym in a document where it first occurs. [W3C WCAG 1.0, Checkpoint 4.2, Priority 3]
The first occurrence of an acronym on a page should be preceded by the full title to which the acronym refers. Avoid the use of acronyms and abbreviations in link text. The most universally-recognized version of an acronym or abbreviation should be used. Do not use acronyms and abbreviations in the alternative text for images or other non-text elements.
An acronym or abbreviation should be spelled out the first time it is used on a page:
Visit the Denver Employees Combined Campaign (DECC) Web site.
Elsewhere in the text and in hyperlinks, the <ACRONYM> element along with the TITLE attribute should be used to denote and expand acronyms and abbreviations. This element enables the title attribute to be read by a screen-reader. Depending on the Web browser, the <ACRONYM> tag may or may not cause the title to be visibly displayed when a mouse pointer is placed on the link that contains the acronym.
If desired, a style reference can be used to further identify the <ACRONYM> element, for example:
There is an <ABBR> element for abbreviations. Unfortunately, it is not well supported in Internet Explorer. The <ACRONYM> element is more universal and is the recommended element to use.
